Why does docker stack ps show all “DESIRED STATE”

Question

Why does Docker show previous task for each service? I want to see only current tasks with the desired state "Running". I want clean up older tasks that have moved to a desired state other than "Running". How can this be achieved?

rus@coder:~/Docker$ docker stack ps getstartedlab 
ID                  NAME                         IMAGE                             NODE                DESIRED STATE       CURRENT STATE                     ERROR                              PORTS
gp07knn0g5hl        getstartedlab_redis.1        redis:latest                      myvm1               Ready               Assigned less than a second ago                                      
m31cmdrsoxns         \_ getstartedlab_redis.1    redis:latest                      myvm1               Shutdown            Rejected less than a second ago   "invalid mount config for type…"   
zjxzlx4hd5um         \_ getstartedlab_redis.1    redis:latest                      myvm1               Shutdown            Rejected 39 seconds ago           "invalid mount config for type…"   
zpi3nlsc338g         \_ getstartedlab_redis.1    redis:latest                      myvm1               Shutdown            Rejected 2 minutes ago            "invalid mount config for type…"   
xqpdhsyw54uh        getstartedlab_web.1          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 7 minutes ago                                                
jruvttjnvwn6        getstartedlab_visualizer.1   dockersamples/visualizer:stable   myvm1               Running             Running 7 minutes ago                                                
g0f28ldwvftr        getstartedlab_web.1          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Shutdown            Failed 8 minutes ago              "No such container: getstarted…"   
zwn1mr6dsafs        getstartedlab_redis.1        redis:latest                      myvm1               Shutdown            Rejected about an hour ago        "invalid mount config for type…"   
zoi4p8rt0lmg         \_ getstartedlab_redis.1    redis:latest                      myvm1               Shutdown            Rejected about an hour ago        "invalid mount config for type…"   
czsb4iu1vx7b        getstartedlab_web.1          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm2               Shutdown            Shutdown 6 minutes ago                                               
oavyu08f2zpy        getstartedlab_visualizer.1   dockersamples/visualizer:stable   myvm1               Shutdown            Failed 8 minutes ago              "No such container: getstarted…"   
ihisx81pn0jm        getstartedlab_web.2          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 7 minutes ago                                                
8fvkdyyzga5u         \_ getstartedlab_web.2      motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Shutdown            Failed 8 minutes ago              "task: non-zero exit (255)"        
usotwci097ll         \_ getstartedlab_web.2      motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm2               Shutdown            Shutdown 6 minutes ago                                               
js15t9lz0fip        getstartedlab_web.3          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 7 minutes ago                                                
we3brrn188ex         \_ getstartedlab_web.3      motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Shutdown            Failed 8 minutes ago              "task: non-zero exit (255)"        
ed94zf05jnqq        getstartedlab_web.4          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 7 minutes ago                                                
p9ntyj4fl0dw         \_ getstartedlab_web.4      motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Shutdown            Failed 8 minutes ago              "task: non-zero exit (255)"        
ipqdt5h8yb7p         \_ getstartedlab_web.4      motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm2               Shutdown            Shutdown 6 minutes ago                                               
s2vdxejisg0d        getstartedlab_web.5          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 7 minutes ago                                                
yj4l496k8dky         \_ getstartedlab_web.5      motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Shutdown            Failed 8 minutes ago              "task: non-zero exit (255)"        

I know, i use grep command, but it isn't best solution

rus@coder:~/Docker$ docker stack ps getstartedlab | grep "Running"
xqpdhsyw54uh        getstartedlab_web.1          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 21 minutes ago                                               
jruvttjnvwn6        getstartedlab_visualizer.1   dockersamples/visualizer:stable   myvm1               Running             Running 21 minutes ago                                               
ihisx81pn0jm        getstartedlab_web.2          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 21 minutes ago                                               
js15t9lz0fip        getstartedlab_web.3          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 21 minutes ago                                               
ed94zf05jnqq        getstartedlab_web.4          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 21 minutes ago                                               
s2vdxejisg0d        getstartedlab_web.5          motionrus/get-started:part2       myvm1               Running             Running 21 minutes ago  

Answer 1

Docker lists every container/task associated with the stack. You can use filters to get only those that should be running. If you want to have more or less containers kept around, there's an option to adjust the task history for each service. That can be set during install or updated with:

docker swarm update --task-history-limit 3

Answer 2

To see only running tasks according to official documentation one need to use filter flag -f . In your case it will be docker stack ps -f "desired-state=running" getstartedlab